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 SPECIAL
REPORT
Muslims in
India's Murshidabad district starving to death
By Zafarul-Islam Khan
Published
in the print edition of The Milli Gazette (16-31 March 2005)
New Delhi: The Hong-Kong-based
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has alerted that people in
Murshidabad district are dying of starvation while the government
authorities have not taken any effective action to stop the deaths. One
five-year-old boy is reported to have been eating dirt before he died.
According to a local doctor, "The entire area is under threat of
insufficient nutritious food." In a report sent to MG, the AHRC said
quoting a local NGO, Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum), that no
government programmes to address starvation are properly functioning in
the area despite the fact that the local authorities are well aware of
what is going on.
The affected area is Dayarampur village and surrounding areas, including
Udayanagar, Suryanagar Colony and Paraspur of Murshidabad district, West
Bengal. The report names some who died on 25 February and identifies them
as Azizul Haque, Alimuddin Seik (aged about 67), his wife Jahida Beoa
(aged 60) and Sattar Seik (aged 50) and says that deaths are
"ongoing" in the area.
According to the AHRC, on a recent visit to the Murshidabad district of
West Bengal, colleagues of Masum were shocked to hear reports of numerous
recent starvation deaths among villagers there, about which the
authorities appear to be doing nothing. Some of the reports that Masum has
received are as follows:
1. Neimuddin stated that his brother Azizul Haque died of hunger because
of no work to earn a livelihood. Neimuddin said that before his brother
died he had not witnessed any cooking at his home for days. His brother
finally died of starvation. Up to today Azizul's wife and son are
starving, and may also die from hunger soon.
2. Sukuda Bibi, a relative of Alimuddin Seik and his wife Jahida Beoa,
says that both of them died recently after their bodies swelled up from
malnutrition. Sukuda Bibi told the Rural Health Centre of Sadikhanrdeyar
that there was no food at home. Whatever they had, no matter how
unhygienic or lacking in nutrition, they ate up in a desperate and
ultimately failed attempt to survive. Dr Ashish Kumar Ghosh, the Medical
Officer attached with the Rural Health Centre, said that, "The cause
of death in Jahida's case was associated with old age problems. However,
malnutrition was one of the major causes of her suffering. I visited the
victims' village and found that the entire area is under threat of
insufficient nutritious food."
3. Sattar Seik died of hunger at the Behrampur District Sadar Hospital. He
was referred there from the Rural Health Centre of Sadikhanrdeyar. On this
case Dr Ashish Kumar Ghosh said, "We don't have proper and sufficient
medical equipment and so we have to refer our patients to the district
hospital." Dr Matiur Rahman, a doctor attached to the Behrampur
District Hospital said, "The patients who have been referred to here
are not in a condition even to utter a word. They have been kept on oxygen
but nothing can be said regarding their improvement."
4. Shyamali Halder said, "Another five-year-old boy also died
suffering from the same cause. Five days ago his stomach was swelled up.
It was found out that he had been living by eating dirt. For many days
there had been no cooking in his house."
According to Masum, "Every day someone or the other dies of hunger in
the village of Dayarampur or among other adjacent villages. They have not
even heard of Annapurna Yojana, a central government scheme intended to
give them food grains when in need. One handicapped man named Amir Shah
complained that their names have not even been included in the Below
Poverty Line list, which would allow them to apply for assistance."
When the Sub-divisional Officer of Murshidabad, Mr Rabindranath Sarkar,
was approached he admitted that there is an acute problem and shortage of
food grains in different villages of this district. He said that he is
trying to make his best possible effort from a limited capacity. He also
said that he has informed the District Magistrate about these
incidents.
Mr Kanchan Chowdhury, the Block Development Officer of Jalangi, in
Murshidabad district, said, "Women of this locality are fleeing to
other places to get work. We are looking for options to address this
economic crisis. Hopefully it will work out soon."
Mr Yunush Sarkar, a member of the Legislative Assembly, West Bengal, said
that like other countries, people in Murshidabad too are below the poverty
level, but he denied that they are dying of hunger.
Masum has also said in its report:
"The hunger in Murshidabad district has affected the villagers so
badly that a large number have been displaced to other areas looking for
means to survive. Large numbers of students are dropping out of the
schools, as it is almost impossible to carry on studies with an empty
stomach, and they are being sent by their families to work elsewhere.
People say that so many meetings have been held with the local Block
Development Officer and other officers attached with the local civil
administration, and also the village council, but all have been in
vain.
"Apart from this, fertile agricultural land, houses, cattle and
everything are being ruined, and the environmental conditions are
worsening. These villages are situated along the river Padma, the bank of
which has been eroding for the last ten years. As a result, fertile land
is being lost. Since 2002 the erosion has rapidly increased. Almost all
able-bodied male members of Dayarampur village have left in search of work
elsewhere, leaving their elderly, female members and children at home, who
are falling prey to starvation. Last year too, two children breathed their
last due to starvation.
"The government is making mockery of basic human rights. According to
the authorities, India is now self-sufficient in food grains. Our country
is also sending so many shiploads of grain to different countries affected
by natural calamities like the tsunami, while our own people are dying for
want of food. The warehouses of the Food Corporation of India are full,
but the people in such circumstances have nothing. The West Bengal
government is letting its people starve in violation of its constitutional
obligations, and those under international law."
The issue was raised in the legislative assembly of the West Bengal state
on 15 March when Mrs Sonali Guha, a member of the opposition Trinamul
Congress Party, moved an adjournment motion referring to the starvation
death of Panchu Sheikh, a resient of Jalangi in Murshidabad, the previous
day. She said another 25 people were teetering on the brink, accusing the
state of looking the other way. Ms Guha said that the rationing system had
virtually collapsed. She demanded a statement by chief minister Mr
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the preventive steps taken so far. Mr Sobhandeb
Chattopadhyay, Opposition chief whip said that the state did not learn any
lesson from earlier starvation deaths at Chanchole and Amlasole and failed
to improve the PDS in the affected areas. The Congress Party too moved an
adjournment motion over the issue. Congress member Asit Mitra said that
the state did not send food and medical help to the affected areas and
that it was trying to hush up the matter. As the government failed to come
up with a satisfactory reply, both Congress and Trinamul memers walked out
of Assembly.
Meanwhile yet another person died of starvation at Jalangi in Murshidabad
on 16 March. A widow, Jhaatumon Bewa (75), a widow from Ghoshpara village
in Ghoshpara grampanchayat died suffering from malnutrition for the last
few months. When the Padma river washed away their farmland and their
homes, her son left the village to look for job elsewhere. Her daughters
too left the village after getting married. One of her daughters, also a
widow, stayed with her and looked after her. Begging was the only means of
earning for them, villagers said. During the harvest season, she was seen
gleaning paddy and wheat in the fields beside the eroding banks of the
Padma. Jhaatumon lived near the residence of Ghoshpara gram panchayat
pradhan. She ran from pillar to post for government help but her appeal
was ignored by the panchayat, her daughter alleged.«
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